Robert Conquest

“Generally speaking, everybody is right-wing on the subjects he knows about.”

“Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.”

“Facts, it seems, are not only stubborn things, but also subversive.”

“The combination of the ideologically-driven ruler and the terrorist-bureaucratic state has proved to be the most lethal form of governance ever devised.”

“The view that all is relative is a proposition to which, on its own terms, its claimants can hardly ask us to assent.”

“History can be fascist. Or, rather, it can be used by fascists.”

“In a 'developed' country, the only thing that is not for sale is the vote.”

“We are all a great deal more ignorant than we think we are.”

“The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.”

“The dead of the Great Terror were not ‘cost’ of industrialisation. They were not ‘mistakes’. They were the victims of a theory.”

“There is no way of writing ‘final’ history. It will always be revised.”